epsas writes “On Cosmonaut’s Day (April 12th 2008) the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) announced that they’ll cease it’s $40,000,000-a-flight space tourism enterprise. Vitaly Perminov, the head of Roskosmos, elaborated on this statement by citing national criticism of the space tourism project; all the while reiterating Roskosmos’s focus on the International Space Station and the new launch site at Vostochny Cosmodrome: ‘Vitaly Lopota, the president of the Energia space rocket corporation, stated he believes space tourism is a forced measure compensating for insufficient financing of the Russian space program.’ This statement (made the day before) by Vitaly Lopota follows another announcement that ‘Energia is ready to send missions to the Moon and Mars if told to do so by the government.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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